Ganguly opts himself out of Mumbai Test

Indian cricket team physiotherapist Andrew Leipus may well be doing a formality on Monday morning when he will put India captain Sourav Gang...

Indian cricket team physiotherapist Andrew Leipus may well be doing a formality on Monday morning when he will put India captain Sourav Ganguly to a fitness test for the fourth and final Test of the 8216;Final Frontier8217; series at the Wankhede Stadium here.

Be as it may, but India8217;s most successful captain 15 wins from 38 matches himself let the cat out of the bag as he confessed, 8216;8216;I8217;m out of the match. I can8217;t run,8217;8217; to a select bunch of reporters before disappearing into the dressing room.

8216;8216;He looks very slow and is very doubtful,8217;8217; was how coach John Wright dropped hints deferring the official announcement for the morrow.

Ganguly is still to recover from the groin injury which had ruled him out of the third Test at Nagpur at the last minute. India lost the Test by 342 runs thereby providing Australia its first series win in India since 1969.

The 32-year-old Ganguly moved gingerly as Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh and new incumbents Dinesh Kaarthick and Gautam Gambhir had a long stint at the nets. Ganguly spent quite sometime at the ground and could be seen providing batting tips to Dravid. He had hurt himself while fielding in the first Test in Bangalore and the injury deteriorated during practice in Nagpur.

Dr Sanjay Marwah, who had conducted MRI bone scan to find the exact cause of injury at Nagpur, had said that the injury will take quite a while to heal. While Ganguly looked hampered, Sachin Tendulkar seemed in no bother by the now famous 8216;tennis elbow8217;.

Tendulkar changed a few bats and was striking the ball as hard as ever. He also rolled him arm over, bowling to Harbhajan Singh.

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Having missed the Nagpur Test following a stomach disorder, Bhajji said, 8216;8216;I8217;ve recovered and looking forward to the Test match.8217;8217;

Mohammad Kaif, Anil Kumble and Zaheer Khan opted out of the nets. 8216;8216;They8217;ve just played a Test and it would be too much of a taxing,8217;8217; said Wright about their absence. 8216;8216;It was a light session today, we8217;ll have a full session tomorrow morning,8217;8217; he added.

New faces Dheeraj Jadhav and Shib Shankar Paul were expected to reach Mumbai by Sunday night.